


Epitaph Wiped Clean

by priama



Series: Lazarus Pit AU [1]
Category: Batman (Movies - Nolan)
Genre: F/M, Gen, Lazarus Pit AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-23
Updated: 2021-01-23
Packaged: 2021-03-15 00:48:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,335
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28929795
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/priama/pseuds/priama
Summary: There's something off about Rachel Dawes.
Relationships: Jonathan Crane/Rachel Dawes
Series: Lazarus Pit AU [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2121780
Comments: 2
Kudos: 5





	Epitaph Wiped Clean

When she awakes, her tongue feels like lead and she doesn't know who she is.  
  
The room is bleak, besides the strange dim green glow around her and the striking blue eyes staring down at her; they're awfully familiar and make her stomach churn.  
  
There's a distant altercation and next thing she knows, she's wrapped in a blanket and carried somewhere up a staircase. She realizes she's naked and cold and her hair is damp.  
  
She can't make sense of the voices heatedly speaking. The man, who the blue eyes belong to, tells something to a woman. His voice is a hiss and when he speaks, images of burlap and maggots flood her brain and she defensively clutches the blanket close to her body.  
  
The other woman gasps and stands her ground but seems to agree to what the man tells her.  
  
There's a wailing outside that sings at the rhythm of blue and red flashing lights and suddenly she is left alone with the other woman. The blue eyed man is nowhere to be seen.  
  
(Doors open, and an old mustachioed man bleaches when he looks at her.  
  
"Rachel." He mutters. Is that word supposed to mean something to her?)  
  
-  
  
Nyssa -no, _Bethany_. Here she must be Bethany- wrings her hands together. The hooded man knows her father and sister. He holds the information she desires, so she must play the part in exchange. Even if it means watching over a woman she doesn't know. A woman risen from her secret pool.  
  
And face the police at her door.  
  
"I heard a loud noise outside and when I opened the door, I found this woman on my porch." She lies, eyes glancing back at the stranger curled up in her couch. "She was unconscious and naked so I brought her in."  
  
"And why didn't you call the police?" The commissioner asks her. He is pale, shaken and looks about to collapse, but Bethany keeps to herself.  
  
"I was frightened. But I also couldn't leave this woman outside. I am a healer, you see? I take care of people."  
  
That convinces the officer and he moves towards the woman, hesitant, hands flexing at his side, but he speaks to her nonetheless. Bethany observes in silence.  
  
(Paramedics take the strange woman away, deciding to carry a thorough examination in the hospital.  
  
"Let me visit her." She pleads. She must not lose sight of this Rachel, or the hooded man won't give her the information of her family's whereabouts. And she must protect the secrets of The Pit. She licks her lips before lying again.  
  
"My name is Bethany Raatko. You can look me up, just... Please, let me visit her. I worry for her.")  
  
-  
  
Jim rides in the back of the ambulance headed for Gotham General. Rachel lies on the stretcher and a paramedic keeps watch on her vital signs.  
  
Gordon should be happy she's alive, happy that she's come back, happy that she's whole and not a pile of ash, scattered in the wind.  
  
But he can't bear to look at her.  
  
All manners of emotion swirl within his chest; guilt for not getting her back all those years ago, shock to know she somehow survived a conflagration that almost blew up an entire block, shame that he's failed Bruce Wayne yet again; may he rest in peace. And most of all, dread.  
  
There is something off about Rachel Dawes. Something he can't make sense of. Something he wishes he could forget.  
  
He dares a sideway glance at her and when her eyes (those eyes! a terrible, vacant green that makes his stomach flip!) meet his, Jim feels pinned down. He would take a masked lunatic trying to turn Gotham into rubble any day before having to sit and face this woman who somehow cheated death and now lies before him.  
  
(He signs her information at the receptionist's desk as nurses take Rachel to her room. The woman who receives the documents gasps when she reads the name.  
  
"Wasn't she-"  
  
"She's back. Only in Gotham City, right?"  
  
He forces a smile.)  
  
-  
  
Commissioner Gordon meets him at the roof of the hospital when he glides down.  
  
"Any info on Crane?"  
  
Blake still can't pin down the husky accent and feels quite silly doing it in front of the only man who knows his identity, but he has to play the role.  
  
The commissioner looks like he's seen a ghost and collecting himself takes a terrible amount of effort.  
  
"We lost his trace but..."  
  
He hesitates and Blake almost breaks character.  
  
"Are you alright?"  
  
"There's someone who we thought died years ago. Back from when Dent was still District Attorney." The older man explains "Turns out she's alive."  
  
Blake widens his eyes behind the mask. He's seen the news, read the files, reviewed the case. He knows who the commissioner talks about.  
  
"She doesn't seem to remember who she is nor what's going on. I thought that maybe if she saw you- the Batman, it might jog her memory... Or trigger a response."  
  
 _You mean if she sees Bruce Wayne._ Blake wants to add, but decides against it. Dead men can't come back, so the next best thing will have to do. He agrees to see the woman. He owes it to his predecessor, after all.  
  
(She reacts, alright. The moment he walks into her room and she sees him, her disoriented and blank mask breaks and tears flood out, threatening to drown her. Her sobbing overwhelms her to the point that the machines connected to her body start beeping and nurses rush in. He is ushered out.  
  
The commissioner says something to him but Blake can't hear him anymore. Even after he leaves, Rachel Dawes' strange wails ring in his ears; a song of a otherworldly grief accompanies him through the rest of the night.)  
  
-  
  
Crane drives hard and fast. He never looks back, never blinks. In his finger tips he still feels her pulse. He still feels her chest rise up. He still sees her eyes open.  
  
With his mind in an oneric haze, he doesn't notice when he's returned to his dilapidated apartment, he just feels himself slam the door behind him. A shrill laughter escapes his lips aa he runs his fingers through his matted hair.  
  
"Lazarus, come forth."  
  
Even in his skepticism, he had insisted on tossing the ashes in the pool. Even in his disbelief, he witnessed her body reform within the depths. Even against all rational thought, against his scientific zeal and against Nyssa al Ghul's protests and gasps, he saw how Rachel Dawes rose from death. Disoriented, mute, but alive. He laughs again.  
  
That damnable commissioner Gordon had arrived the moment Rachel Dawes opened her eyes so he had no time to do or say anything of importance, but to dress her in a blanket and hand her over to Nyssa al Ghul.  
  
The woman protested but he had come prepared.  
  
 _"Lie to them. You're good at that." He ordered. "Say she knocked on your door or that you found her collapsed outside. In the mean time, watch her for me."_  
  
 _"What's her name?"_  
  
 _"You'll find out soon enough."_  
  
Crane stands up, knees still shaking, and he strips off his clothes, wanting to rid himself of the stains and swarming sensation the pool left him with.  
  
Dressing himself in a cleaner suit, he readies himself to leave again. The night is still young after all, and he has a conversation pending.  
  
(Her room is dark save for a dim light above her bed frame. Crane removes the burlap from his head and Rachel Dawes presses herself against the mattress.  
  
"Long time no see, Miss Dawes. Do you remember me?"  
  
She stares at him with strange eyes, and he can almost hear the gears in her mind turning. She tries to mutter something but her tongue refuses to cooperate. She shakes her head.  
  
"I see." Thrill fills his chest and Crane smiles wickedly, icicle eyes glinting. "Would you like to?")

**Author's Note:**

> Seicchanart wrote this amazing fic (https://archiveofourown.org/works/28923804) based on our conversation about this au and it pulled me put of my funk so I joined in as well.
> 
> Honestly, read their fic and review it and kudos it and bookmark it bcuz it OWNS.
> 
> Nyssa's alias Bethany is based on Biblical Lazarus' hometown.


End file.
